by Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports

Southern California athletic director Pat Haden received more than $2.2 million in compensation in the 2011 calendar year, according to the university's latest federal tax return. The total makes Haden the nation's highest paid AD.

Vanderbilt AD David Williams had been the highest paid AD based on his 2010 compensation, which had been the most recent available. However, Vanderbilt released its new tax return to USA TODAY Sports on Friday, and that document showed Williams' compensation in 2011 was about $1 million lower than Haden's.

USC's return, provided Thursday, also showed former football defensive boss Monte Kiffin with compensation totaling just less than $1.8 million -- putting him well ahead of Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris in USA TODAY Sports' most recent survey of football coaches compensation.

In addition, the return showed Trojans head coach Lane Kiffin with compensation just under $2.6 million. That amount would have placed him among the nation's top 30 and in the middle of the Pac-12, according to the survey.

This is the first time that Haden's compensation has appeared on USC's tax return. Haden replaced Mike Garrett as AD in August 2010. Non-profit organizations must provide calendar-year reporting of their most highly compensated employees. So 2011 was Haden's first full calendar year on the job.

USC's return reports Haden's compensation as follows:

$1,203,888 in base pay. That amount alone would have made Haden the fifth highest-paid AD in a compensation survey USA TODAY Sports published in March.

$800,000 in bonus and incentive compensation.

$204,585 in other reportable income.

$24,500 in retirement and deferred pay.

$14,705 in non-taxable benefits.

Monte Kiffin was listed with base pay of $1,569,961, an amount that by itself would have made him the nation's highest-paid assistant. Kiffin received nearly $200,000 more in bonus pay, other reportable income and non-taxable benefits.

It is difficult to directly compare the compensation of private school employees to that of public school employees.

For its surveys of athletics compensation, USA TODAY Sports bases compensation totals for public-school employees on current-year or current-season figures found in contracts, NCAA-mandated income forms and other documents it obtains through open-records requests.

It does not include the value of standard employee benefits or potentially taxable perks such as tickets, country club memberships or family travel. In addition, USA TODAY Sports reports the maximum amount of bonuses that potentially can be earned during the applicable year or season.

However, depending on the terms of the contract, the figures for total pay that USA TODAY Sports reports do include the amounts of certain forms of deferred compensation based on when they are accrued rather than paid.

Because private schools decline to make their contracts available, USA TODAY Sports cannot make determinations about whether to include certain forms of deferred compensation.

So, for private schools, USA TODAY Sports' totals are based on totals reported in the schools' federal tax records -- and those totals include the value of all taxable benefits and the amounts of bonuses actually paid (private schools are not required to disclose their employees' NCAA-mandated athletically related outside income forms).

Because the schools are organized as non-profit organizations, they must annually file a tax return that includes information about the pay of their most highly compensated employees. Although the returns mostly cover fiscal years that involve parts of two calendar years, the IRS requires that the compensation reporting cover the most recently completed calendar year.

Because of the complexity of their returns, large colleges and universities routinely take filing extensions that result in a significant time lag between the period covered by their most recent return and the date they file.